Mortal Kombat II Buttons in MAME

[Skadar]

I love Mortal Kombat II and I'm having some trouble with the button setup in MAME 0.99.  I've got a SlikStik Classic control panel which has the MAME-standard 6-buttons (2 rows of 3) with a 7th thumb button.

Mortal Kombat II used a 5-button setup in an X-pattern with the center button being Block.  I want to use my 6-button setup in almost the exact same way... but I want to have the center 2 buttons to be Block.

It almost works out-of-the-box.  The top-center button is Block and it works perfectly.  However, the bottom-center button only seems to do a strange sort-of half-block.  The character onscreen makes a split-second block animation and then goes back to normal stance even if you hold the button down.

I figured "no problem"... so I go into MAME in-game control setup and attempt to map Player1 Button 2 and Player1 Button 5 to the same key.  This never works!  Anyone know why not?  The second button (Player1 Button 5) now doesn't register at all.

Does anyone have any clue about this?

[cdbrown]

have you tested this bottom center button in other games to ensure the microswitch isn't flakey?  Sounds like the small actuator on the micro closes the circuit as it's being pushed down, but as soon as you push it all the way in, the circuit becomes open again.  Does it to a "half-block" again as you let go of the button.

Try opening up notepad and hold each button down to make sure they are all repeating the keystrokes.

[testicle187]

P1 B1 = High Punch
P1 B2 = High Kick
P1 B3 = Block
P1 B3 = (2nd Block button mapped to same input) Block
P1 --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- = Low Punch
P1 B5 = Low Kick
P1 B6 = Extra Block Button (or you can use it for Run in MK3)

Hope this helps.
Set these up in mame game specific controls for MK2 or any MK game for that matter.

[elvis]

Yes, button 6 only does an "instant block".  That's normal.  As mentioned it is used for "run" in later MK games.

You should be able to assign two keys to a single command using the TAB menu in MAME.  If you assign each one quickly enough (highlight the function, and hit ENTER then the button, and then ENTER again and the next button) and then MAME will show the "R-ALT or X" as the input (or whatever your joystick is mapped to for those two keys).

[cdbrown]

controls.dat - a great source of information.  You will need to setup your ctrlr file to change the default action of button 5 to button 6 and map button 5 to match button 2.   Although setting up ctrlr files can be a real pain.

[mk2]
gamename=Mortal Kombat II (rev L3.1)
numPlayers=2
alternating=0
mirrored=1
tilt=1
cocktail=0
usesService=0
miscDetails=Mame uses the jamma standard for button numbering and thus all of the mk games are completely off. The games buttons were arranged in a cross pattern with block the center of the 'X' high and low punch on the left and high and low kick on the right respectively. It is highly reccomended that you write ctrlr files for these games if you intend to play them. Also there is actually a second block button used for sf2 conversions but it alternates between broken and half working in the mame source. 
P1NumButtons=5
P1Controls=8-way Joystick+joy8way
P1_BUTTON1=High Punch
P1_BUTTON2=Block
P1_BUTTON3=High Kick
P1_BUTTON4=Low Punch
P1_BUTTON5=Low Kick
P1_JOYSTICK_UP=Jump
P1_JOYSTICK_DOWN=Duck
P1_JOYSTICK_LEFT=Move Left
P1_JOYSTICK_RIGHT=Move Right

[Skadar]

Wow!  Thanks a lot for the great information.  I'll see if I can use your suggestions to make this work.

[Skadar]

Argh!  It just doesn't seem to work. 

I'm doing two reassignments here:

1) Switching Button 5 and Button 6.  This works perfectly.

2) Then I want to assign Button 5 to the same key as Button 2 (which is "H").  This DOES NOT work.

When I do this, whether through the Tab menu or by editing the mk2.cfg file directly, this is what happens...

1) Button 5 keeps doing the "quick block" that I mentioned in my first post...

2) Button 6 becomes disabled.

Any thoughts?

[2PacMan]

For the record, i'm having the exact same problem...i wanted buttons 2 and 5 for block also, and have tried many times to re-map them and it doesn't work.  It will only let you have one of the buttons be block, and then button5 defaults to a kick, and vice versa. I finally just gave up and kept it that way.

[Lilwolf]

very very easy... you can have as many buttons as you want for each.

Do this... Assume that button 5 is the good block and button 6 is the quick block.

Then, assume ASD, ZXC keys are the buttons on your control panel... And you want both S and X to be block.

in mame setup.  goto button 5 and select it.  Then hit S.  Then select it again and pres X.  It will now say Button 5 - S or X

Now either one will trigger the button 5.  Both are now the 'good' blocks and nothing is hooked to the quick block.

Other notes.  If you assign a key 2 times in a row to a button, you get not that key.  So you can have a button be a 'shift' key.  Let say Q be your shift.  Then you can have the UI select up be 'UP' and 'Q' and the player 1 up be 'UP' not 'Q'.  So when you have the Q button pressed it wont touch the player 1 setting but WILL do the UI.  GREAT for setting up a hidden switch for configurating buttons in mame when you don't want to use extra buttons for it.